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Mahanta floats new party
Govt’s ‘retroactive’ attitude delays metro link
Bhutan bid to stop infiltration
MNCs must keep national policies
in mind, says Meira Kumar
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Cops harassing Muslims
in Hyderabad: panel
Arun Gawli in police net on Preeti issue
Dalits see bias in Judge’s transfer
Dalit meeting in Washington to mobilise support
US General to view exercise in Mizoram
21 get Indira Priyadarshni Vrikshmitra award
Horse offered at temple
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Mahanta floats new party
Guwahati, September 15 After the two-day political convention, which ended here today, the former Chief Minister and expelled AGP leader officially declared the formation of his new party, the AGPP. Addressing the media here today, Mr Mahanta said the focus of his party would be to strengthen “regionalism”, which is now diluted by the official faction of the AGP headed by its President Brindaban Goswami. Mr Mahanta also said he would revive the “coalition formula” of 1996 when the AGP had captured Dispur with secular and non-Congress allies. In 1996, the AGP had electoral adjustments with the CPI, CPM, UPPA, Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and the Bodos. Mr Mahanta said: “I will try to combine all non-Congress forces in the state to dethrone the Congress from power in the next Assembly poll.” As the President of the newly formed AGPP, Mr Mahanta would stake claim of the AGP’s symbol, Elephant and would retain the same constitution as he considered his outfit as the “original AGP”. Soon after Mr Mahanta floated the idea to revive the “coalition politics” of 1996, the CPI national executive member Pamod Gogoi wanted the former Chief minister to clear his stand on the BJP. “Mahanta should clarify whether his non-Congress forces include the BJP or not. If he goes with the BJP, the Left cannot be with him,” Mr Gogoi said. The United Minority Front (UMF) chairman, Mr H. R. A. Chowdhury, also wanted Mr Mahanta to clear his stand on the BJP as well as its promise of the legal protection to genuine minority citizens in Assam. “The 12 minority organisations are meeting here on October 3 following which we will clear our stand,” he added. Presently, the NCP leader and former Lok Speaker P. A. Sangma is maintaining a close liaison with Mr Mahanta, while others, including the Left, would like the former Chief Minister to clear his stand on the BJP. |
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Govt’s ‘retroactive’ attitude delays metro link
New Delhi, September 15 Sources in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) suggest that had the state government made its funding pattern clear and the cost of alignment of the line clear, the Gurgaon link might have been cleared by the Group of Ministers(GoM) along with the second phase of the metro for the Capital. Earlier this month, the GoM headed by the Defence Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, while giving a go ahead to the phase-II, did not approve the NCR links to Noida and Gurgaon, saying that funding patterns and alignment of lines were not clear. Had the Gurgaon-NCR link also received a green signal, it could have been linked with the phase-II that is now already underway. According to a DMRC official, the delay in such a project means the cost of construction goes up and the state government will have to shell out more due to escalation in construction costs and inflation. “It has been more than 10 months since November 2004 when the DMRC presented the Detailed Project Report(DPR) for the 6.3-km corridor between the Delhi border and the IFFCO chowk in Gurgaon and all that has happened till date is the exchange of letters between the state government and the DMRC,” he adds. Besides the formal clearance of the project by the Haryana Government, as of now, the DMRC has not received any clear-cut indication from the state on funding patterns and the cost of alignment. However, the DMRC official says that if the state government manages to clear all formalities soon, the Gurgaon corridor can be linked to the phase-II. “The Central Secretariat and Qutub Minar segment of the phase-II, scheduled to be completed in September 2009, can be further extended at the same cost. Eventually, the project will come through as everything is linked to the Commonwealth Games in 2010 but delays mean a rise in the construction costs and it is the Haryana Government which will ultimately have to pay for the inflation,” he says. |
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Bhutan bid to stop infiltration
Hyderabad, September 15 This was disclosed at the secretary-level talks between the two countries held here today to discuss border security management. The Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Bhutan, Mr Dasho Penden Wangchuk, along with his official delegation arrived in the city to participate in the third meeting of the Indo-Bhutan group. The Secretary, Border management, Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI Dr D.K. Sankaran, and other senior officials attended the meeting. Both groups had earlier met Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy at his camp office. Talking to reporters here later, Mr Wangchuk and Dr Sankaran said Bhutan had no Maoist infiltration, particularly after the government’s military action to drive away militant organisations like the ULFA and Bodo Liberation, from the country. Though at present there was no threat to Bhutan from Maoists, the security agencies of both countries were in regular touch to discuss and exchange views on strengthening of border areas, they said. Dr Sankaran said the issues discussed at today’s meeting included matters relating to infrastructure development, including road development, in the border areas. Mr Wangchuk revealed that 21 Bhutan police officials were sent to India to undergo training, of whom two were sent to the National Police Academy at Hyderabad. The meeting of Indo-Bhutan groups would be held once in a year. The first and second meetings were held in New Delhi and Bhutan in 2003 and 2004, respectively. |
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MNCs must keep national policies
in mind, says Meira Kumar
New Delhi, September 15 Addressing a conference on corporate social responsibility here today, she said the multi-national companies and private sector in India must give equal opportunity and fair share to discriminated groups. She said globalisation with a widening space for trans-national companies was meaningless unless it provided space for neglected sections of society. The minister said that this would require affirmative policies for imparting education and developing skills and entrepreneurship among the disadvantaged groups. She said the private sector must participate in this endeavour. Ms Kumar said that business organisations had a stake in the development of a socially just, productive and empowered society as business could not succeed in a “failed” society. She said the private sector in India and trans-national companies ought to recognise that the Indian society was characterised by a particular social and economic structure that had led to economic and market discrimination of large sections of population. |
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Cops harassing Muslims
in Hyderabad: panel
Hyderabad, September 15 Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the festival since this communally sensitive city has witnessed clashes during the festival in the past. About 25,000 policemen, including Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers, are being deployed this year. Hyderabad, which is the second city after Mumbai in organising the Ganesh festival on a massive scale, witnessed the installation of an estimated 15,000 idols in different neighbourhoods, including the 45-foot idol at Khairatabad, which attracts thousands of devotees every year. Alleging that the police was creating terror in the Muslim areas in the name of the Ganesh festival, the Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee today urged the state government to intervene and take steps to stop the police harassment. Mr Lateef Mohammed Khan, secretary of the committee, told reporters here that the city police had picked up several innocent Muslim youth as a precautionary measure and condemned the tendency to dub all Muslim youth as fundamentalists. The police has made elaborate security
arrangements following intelligence reports that terrorists as well as Maoists might utilise the occasion to cause trouble. |
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Arun Gawli in police net on Preeti issue
Mumbai, September 15 According to police officials, Gawli’s aide Naresh Pardeshi who was administered truth serum, has confessed to receiving the money from Jain. Pardeshi reportedly made this confession in Bangalore where he was interrogated. The police is now on the lookout for Gawli’s office manager Anil Tawde who absconded when the scandal broke. Earlier, the police arrested Jain and Pardeshi after Gawli tipped off the authorities about the planned hit on Bhandarkar. However, senior police officials suspect that Gawli may have chosen to sacrifice his lieutenants after the plan to kill Bhandarkar went awry. Jain has told investigators that she had approached Arun Gawli to raise the issue of her being allegedly duped by Bhandarkar in the Maharashtra Assembly. Gawli, however, insisted that he had asked Jain to go to the police with the matter. |
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Dalits see bias in Judge’s transfer
Hyderabad, September 15 The state Dalit organisations today urged the high court for immediate withdrawal of the orders issued on Tuesday transferring the special sessions judge K. Prabahakar Rao for trying cases under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. He is enquiring into the Chundur Dalit massacre case. Speaking to mediapersons here, representatives of the organisations said it was against democratic norms to transfer the judge on the basis of his caste. They said the accused who hailed from the upper caste, opposed the appointment of a scheduled caste judge who tried to speed up the trail. The 118 accused in the Chundur massacre case had filed a petition in the high court seeking transfer of the trial of the case to some other court as they allegedly feared justice would be not done to them. The high court had however, not given any direction in this case. The Dalit organisations alleged that though the massacre had taken place 14 years back, the trial has not progressed much due to postponements and administrative bottlenecks. |
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Dalit meeting in Washington to mobilise support
New Delhi, September 15 Addressing a press conference, National Chairman of All-India Confederation of SC and ST Organisations Udit Raj said here today the meeting, which is being organised by the Dalit Freedom Network (DFN), would also raise tragic incidents like in Gohana where Dalits were killed. In the era of globalisation, Dr Raj said since it had become imperative to fight certain causes globally, the DFN decided to organise the meeting in which many US Senators and other eminent personalities would participate. Dr Raj said the DFN had established over 40 education centres for Dalits in India, which not only empowered them economically but also provided medical and health facilities. It was also spreading awareness about Dalits in the US, he said. |
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US General to view exercise in Mizoram
New Delhi, September 15 “Yudh Abhyas-05,” the third exercise in successive years at the Indian Army’s prestigious Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) at Vairangte Mizoram, started this week on Tuesday. The first and the second exercises were held in April 2003 and March-April 2004, respectively. Around 50 US soldiers and an equal number of Indian soldiers are participating in the exercise. They will also undergo specialised training for counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations. |
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21 get Indira Priyadarshni Vrikshmitra award
New Delhi, September 15 The awardees include individuals, government officials, voluntary agencies, cooperative organisations, educational institutes, corporate sectors and municipal corporations. Awardees in the individual category — Baban Prabhakar Sakhalikar, a school teacher from Buldana city, Komor Uddin Ahmed, a resident of Majherchar Chala Kura in Dhubri district of Assam, and 72-year-old Devaki Amma from Alleppy district in Kerala — are individuals, who, without any financial assistance from the government undertook conservation work in their areas. Speaking at an interactive session between mediapersons and the awardees today, Secretary, Environment and Forests Pradipto Ghosh said increasing popularity of the prestigious award indicated that afforestation was now a mass movement in the country and not just a government programme. |
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Horse offered at temple
Jaipur, September 15 Tradition has it that people, who visit the temple, make lavish offerings of horses and umbrellas (chhattar) made of silver and gold along with a variety of abundant eatables at the shrine. |
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